1873 •] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 241 



centre of the mound is a stone chamber containing the sar- 

 cophagus in which is the corpse. This chamber or vault is 

 approached by an arched tunnel, the entrance to which is 

 bricked up. This entrance is approached by a paved cause- 

 way, passing through numerous arches, gateways, courts, 

 and halls of sacrifice, and through a long avenue of colossal 

 marble figures, sixteen pairs of wolves, kelins, horses, 

 camels, elephants, and twelve pairs of warriors, priests, and 

 civil officers. Whether this avenue is orientated or not is 

 not noticed, but an idea of the size of these colossal marble 

 figures may be formed from the following: — "During the 

 building of the late Emperor Heen-fung's tomb, a road one 

 hundred miles long was made from the quarries of Fang- 

 shan to the Tung-ling, and a block of marble fifteen feet 

 long, twelve feet high, and twelve feet broad, weighing sixty 

 tons, was seen by several of us then resident in Pekin, being 

 dragged along this road on a strong truck or car drawn by 

 six hundred mules and horses." " This block 



was to be cut into the figure of an elephant to be placed 

 as one of the guardians of the tomb." — (W. Lockhart, 

 Proc. R. G. S., 1866). 



Similarly, near Nankin, there exist avenues of colossal 

 stone figures, attributed to the same Ming dynasty, in con- 

 nection with the tombs, but what these tombs consist of is 

 not mentioned. More south, in Fokhien, and doubtless 

 throughout southern China, are found the horse-shoe or 

 omega-shaped tombs which in some cases are associated 

 with analogous approaches. Although not covered by arti- 

 ficial tumuli, the sepulchral chambers are excavated in the 

 side of the natural hills, whilst those belonging to high 

 officials are approached through avenues of stone pillars 

 and carved figures, animal and human, although on a much 

 smaller scale than those of Pekin and Nankin. A sketch of 

 a group of these tombs, said to be those of former governors 

 of Canton, at the foot of the White Cloud mountains, is 

 exhibited. 



Now we may venture to assume that all cromlechs, dol- 

 mens, kists, and other sepulchral stone chambers of every 

 description, were originally covered with tumuli. Some of 

 the tumuli appear to have had their bases strengthened by 

 revetments or boundary walls of large upright stones. In 

 Great Britain and the Channel Islands we frequently find 

 that the tumuli have disappeared, leaving the structures 

 thoroughly denuded of the smaller stones, earth, or sand 

 which originally covered them, whilst the large blocks 

 forming the revetment remain, and have been generally 



vol. in. (n.s.) 2 1 



